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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26489551">Our element</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/assassi/pseuds/assassi'>assassi</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Teen Wolf (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Stiles has a plan, surprise</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 11:28:22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>900</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26489551</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/assassi/pseuds/assassi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles took a moment to look back at him then sighed and looked down at his fidgeting hands.</p><p>“I just thought that… It could be our element.”</p><p>At first Derek didn’t get it. Element? What element? Since gaining back and developing his spark, Stiles had been obsessed with the four elements for a while, equally good with manipulating all of them (and childishly smug about that too). That said, Derek still didn’t see how that applied in this case.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, sterek - Relationship</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>98</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Our element</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Disclaimer (are we still doing this? o.O): I do not own Teen wolf. Obviously. Otherwise Sterek would be canon.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Everyone had always assumed that Derek was scared of flying. He blamed all the stereotypes out there: werewolves, confined places. People in the know just took it for granted that predators like Derek preferred being on solid ground, period.</p><p>In reality, flying brought back all those bittersweet memories of going on vacations with his family – France, Switzerland, Hawaii; ski and snowboard in the Alps and surfing under the hot sun. There was only one occasion where flying meant an escape: when Laura had rushed them out of Beacon Hills, to a safer if lonelier, dusty and crowded New York. But that was one bad memory in a line of so many others, so many happier ones that Derek tried very hard to ignore that single occasion and remember all the others, focus on them.</p><p>When Stiles had proposed a flight to Italy Derek had been skeptical. Was it a case Stiles was working on? A witch coven or a vampire lair or… whatever else grabbed his mate’s attention these days. Definitely dangerous. Which meant Derek had to go, no matter what. No way he was leaving Stiles do deal with… whatever, alone.</p><p>Now, feeling his mate’s eager gaze on himself, Derek sighed.</p><p>“Are you finally going to tell me what that’s all about?”, he asked.</p><p>“In a minute”, Stiles promised, still looking at him dreamily.</p><p>Three years into a stable relationship and it still made Derek uneasy sometimes, being subjected to such rapt, adoring attention.</p><p>“I swear, if that’s all a ploy to become a member of the mile high club…”, he began.</p><p>Stiles snorted. “Awe. You know me so well. But alas…. It’s not.”</p><p>Derek turned to face his pain-in-the-ass of a mate. (Sometimes literally.)</p><p>Stiles took a moment to look back at him then sighed and looked down at his fidgeting hands.</p><p>“I just thought that… It could be our element.”</p><p>At first Derek didn’t get it. Element? What element? Since gaining back and developing his spark, Stiles had been obsessed with the four elements for a while, equally good with manipulating all of them (and childishly smug about that too). That said, Derek still didn’t see how that applied in this case.</p><p>“It’s just…You hate water, after that time in the pool. I know that showers are okay but you don’t even want to go to the lake at the Preserve, or the ocean”, Stiles began. “You are understandably afraid of fire and no one could blame you for that. And earth? Everything that has tried to kill us has mostly attacked us on solid ground. That leaves only air.”</p><p>Stiles took another deep breath, clearly nervous.</p><p>“So I’m not gonna lie that I haven’t booked us a sickeningly romantic weekend in Tuscany but I was kinda betting more on the trip itself.”</p><p>Another deep breath.</p><p>Stiles turned to face him again.</p><p>“You’ve known me since I was a stupid insensitive brat, roaming the woods looking for trouble. Since I was scrawny little thing counting on a baseball bat against beasts that were way out of my league. You’ve seen me at my worst”, he winced; and Derek knew what he was seeing, even now, when he closed his eyes: darkness and chaos, the Nogitsune at its worst. “Yet you kept coming back even when I was sure that you were gone for good.”</p><p>Stiles sniffed, right hand pulling something out of his hoodie.</p><p>“So, Derek Michael Hale…”</p><p>Oh, God.</p><p>“…would you do me the honor of marrying the mess known as Stiles Stilinski?”</p><p>There was silence. Deafening silence and the kind of white noise filling an empty head and an overwhelmed heart. No one was looking at them; Stiles hadn’t gone for show and had waited until most passengers had fallen asleep, movies, books and headphones long forgotten. The world was quiet and dark around them. They were a mile high, just the two of them, in a moment that was only theirs.</p><p>Derek looked at the handsome man sitting next to him and saw the scrawny kid from years ago; the silly buzzcut, baggy clothes, doe eyes that looked way too big on his face. He remembered seeing so many emotions in those expressive eyes: determination, passion, fury and a promise; a silent begging for him to stay; sadness and loneliness, a resigned acceptance when he hadn’t; surprise and excitement every time when life kept meeting them again and again; that stupefied astonishment when Derek had finally given in and taken that first step, claiming a first kiss he had dreamed of for far too long; the open expression when Stiles had given Derek everything, holding back nothing.</p><p>Those amber eyes were nervous now, waiting.</p><p>“Say something”, Stiles begged.</p><p>In a way, Derek thought that maybe his answer had always been known, foreseen and foretold by powers greater than both of them. Maybe those spirits had always known, ever since Derek was a stupid jock and Stiles a troublesome brat; or when Derek was a heartbroken teenager and Stiles a heartbroken kid with a single parent; or when Stiles had roamed the woods looking for trouble and Derek was part of the trouble; or when Stiles was an FBI trainee and Derek was a fugitive; or when they finally opened up their eyes and saw what the universe had always known.</p><p>Derek smiled slowly, basking in the moment and Stiles’ nervous anticipation.</p><p>“Si, amore.”</p>
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